First off, I have to mention that since we didn't have luggage, we pretty much had no toiletries (I know it's Peace Corps, but still). But when we arrived at the apartment where we stayed, our host had shelves full of hotel products and stuff people had left behind, so we didn't have to go out and find anything! It was the greatest.
We did spend the first part of our first morning getting another shirt or two and some underwear and socks. Now that we had the essentials, we could start fun stuff!
So we met up with four other PCVs that were in the city and did some sightseeing with them, which was great. We saw the castle and cathedral (from the outside; most of us didn't go in) and then 5/6 of us went on a wild goose chase for the perfect restaurant, which I think we eventually found. We parted ways to get ready for the rest of the night, as we had dinner and club reservations for New Year's Eve.
Turns out we had dinner reservations at a place with about a hundred locations in Prague, but luckily, even though the one we all made it to was the wrong one, they had room for us. There was great food, great company, and fun playing games while we were there! Then we went out to one of the town squares to watch the midnight fireworks, and after that to the club for a little bit of dancing, a lot of trying to push through the crowd. I had fun, though!
The next morning we had a leisurely brunch and then three of us took a leisurely walk to the National Gallery to see some pretty cool art exhibits, which I really enjoyed. We might have gotten lost on the way back, but all that meant was we got to tease the person who got us lost (good-naturedly, of course, as we always are) and have yummy Thai food instead of pushing through more crowds to see more fireworks.
Our friends left the next day, so Stephanie and I had the day to ourselves, which we enjoyed with Mexican food, margaritas, Starbucks, and Mockingjay in English on the big screen.. Followed by some bars for one of us to meet cute boys (well I guess we both met them, to be fair).
We got back late that night and found that we couldn't get into our apartment. There had been another group of girls staying there, and they (I want to say stupidly, but I also want to be kind, so I'm conflicted) left their key in the lock on the inside. So ours didn't work. We called our host and she said she'd call a locksmith in the morning but in the meantime she'd take us to her friend's apartment where she was staying (the friend was out of town..? or something). We just can't get away from these "adventures." I don't know what it was about this trip, but Murphy's Law might have been working harder than I would have preferred.
The next morning, she hadn't come back from wherever she went after leaving us there, so we were slightly trapped until she returned. (I say slightly, but really, it was completely, as we couldn't leave without a key to open the door.) But we made the best of it, and when we got to leave, we took the first tram we found and got off when I saw the Dancing House. Being stuck in that apartment took us near a sight we wanted to see, which was near a restaurant where we could check off "try some Czech goulash" from our list. Two birds, one stone.
We did some more wandering, shopping, sightseeing, etc. and then went back to our unlocked place to shower and change into our other shirt. Then we went dancing again!
The next day, we finished the rest of our "Things to do in Prague" list and met three more PCVs for a drink after dinner. These were the three we were stuck on the side of the road with in Romania, and it was great to see them and hear about their adventures! We went to a few bars with them and had a bunch of fun. Stephanie went back before me, which was intelligent, as we had to leave early the next morning for our flight, but I just wasn't ready to stop having fun, so.. When I finally went back, I may have fallen asleep on the tram and gotten kicked off at the end of the line. Guess how close the end was to where we were staying? If you guessed "not close at all" you would be absolutely right! There's that Murphy again. Or maybe just me, being stupid. You'd better believe that I stood up the whole ride back after that (thank goodness for all night public transportation) so I didn't miss my stop again.
All hiccups aside, I had a really great time! It was fun getting to know Stephanie better, and getting to hang out with other cool people I rarely see. We had such good food and met some cool people from a ton of different countries. We may have gotten lost 60% of the time, but I think we ended up seeing some neat stuff that way. We did the whole trip without any luggage, but still managed to look fabulous and have fun! There's the Peace Corps spirit for ya.
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